The importance of family/belonging

Family, for Beck, Paul, Sam and the others, is defined as their pack. This desire for a family is seen in Beck's confession about his wife and his decision to change young Sam into a werewolf. Beck says that he'd known his wife had cancer and that they'd talked about children, though she had only months to live and both knew it wouldn't happen. Beck had seen Sam with his parents and believed he could do better raising Sam. He admits to being incredibly selfish on this point and it seems that his motive was not to save Sam from a life with his parents but to save himself from being childless. Beck holds to the idea that he can somehow build the basis of a productive adult life for Sam through education. He seems to hope that Sam will follow in his footsteps...